need info please

BiGGy

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 15, 2002
We have been to WDW a few times now but thought we might have a change. We are also big hard rock hotel fans, which we will miss if we go to anaheim. We will be staying in a Hilton Garden Inn for most of the holiday but is there a hotel nearby that would be on par with the hard rock hotel?

Also we like to shop(who doesn't,lol) so would be interested in local malls.

We will also want to do a beach day and are not sure of which beach to visit.

What sort of time will it take to drive from LAX?

Many thanks for any info given

Doris (BiGGy's wife) :)
 
Shopping:

The Block at Orange is just a few miles from DL, not far from your hotel (we just stayed right there this week).

Fashion Island in Newport Beach

South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa 405 exit Bristol

Irvine Spectrum in Irvine off the 5/405

Beaches- depends on when you come and what you want to do there :) My faves are Newport Beach, HUntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point, all in Orange County.
 
many thanks for the info

Is the garden Inn near to the parks? We will be driving.

We know that the disney parks are not as big as the ones in WDW so we are going to try the universal studios too.

We have heard of knotts berry farm too.

What other things are there to do whilst there?

How long a drive is it to the beaches?

Where is best to eat around there?

And the big question.......... is there a KFC and a cheesecake factory nearby?DD and i are big fans of both of these.lol

Many thanks for the info

Doris(BiGGy's wife) :)
 
The Garden Inn is at Harbor and Chapman, about a 10 minute drive from DL. It just depends on how many red lights you get, and how much traffic. At DL opening and closing it will probably take longer to get up and down harbor, also if there is something big happening at the convention center.

KFC is on Ball Road between Harbor and Anaheim Blvd. It's not far from DL at all. It's by a McDonalds (it's eaiser to see the McDonalds than the KFC. The closest to the hotel is at Harbor (opposite direction from DL) just before Garden Grove Blvd.

Cheesecake factory the closest one is at the Brea Mall. Take Katella or Ball (from DL) or Chapman from hotel to the 57 freeway, go North, Exit at Imperial Highway, Turn Left onto Imperial (West) and the mall is on your right hand side at State College. It is in the mall parking lot. You enter the parking lot from State College, and the restuarant is up by Imperial. There is also one at Beach Blvd and the 405 freeway, if you are driving that way to get to the beach. There is another at fashion Island in Newport, and another at the Spectrum in Irvine.

To get to the beach there are lots of different ways to go. Basically you either need to take streets all the way up to the beach or jump on the freeway. (which kind of takes you out of the way). If you want to go to Huntington Beach take the 57 South to 22 West and get off at Beach Blvd. Then drive South and you will enter the Huntington Beach, or you can drive along PCH and drive along the beach. To get to Newport Beach take the 5 south to the 55 south, this freeway will end and you just follow the road to the beach (the alternative is to take Harbor Blvd, and it will take you to the same road). It's at least a good half hour, and probably longer. On warm days, it take take half an hour to go a few miles down near the beach.
 


Ah - the age old question - "how long will it take me to travel X miles in SoCal?"

That cannot be answered without some additonal information:
what time are you traveling?
what route are you taking?
how many passengers are in your car? (car pool lanes are sometimes faster)

I live 15 minutes south of LAX using the 405 (no traffic) - I take the 91 East and the 5 south to go to DL and it takes 30-45 minutes (pending traffic) - so based on light traffic I would say about an hour. Of course everything is pending traffic.

So from LAX - you can take the 405 south to the 110 north to the 91 east to the 5 south

Remember this one thing and you'll save a lot of frustration: distance has no relationship to time and vise versa
 
thanks to all of you for the info. We are hoping to go the last 2 weeks of october.we are travelling into the unknown as we normally go to WDW so it seems a bit daunting.

Has anyone done a week in disney then a week in las vegas? If so how much were the flights and which airline did you use?

we are travelling with virgin to LA but would like a stop over at las vegas for a few days.

many thanks
:)
Doris(BiGGy's wife)
 

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